Playing Basketball Keeps Kids On The Courts, Not In Them

The West Side Ballers, Spokane’s most wanted basketball team, are 1-5, outfitted in new Nikes and still on probation.

The team’s roster is packed with juvenile criminals. The starting line up matches a list of budding neighborhood gangsters.

But team members are living down their reputations. None has been arrested since joining the team last winter. Most have summer jobs. The chief of police considers the team a potential model for dealing with neighborhood gangs.

The team, sponsored by the COPS West station, even went to the Spokane Opera House last month to be honored as a nominee for a Chase Youth group achievement award.

“A year ago, I could never have taken them there,” said Louise Stamper, a West Central housewife who is surrogate mom for most team members. “But they were so well-behaved. Here we are, up against the Girl Scouts and Teen Explorers.”

Since a newspaper report in February on the team, Stamper has collected more than $1,400 in donations to pay for shoes and uniforms. A neighborhood church took up a special offering and a Spokane finance lawyer arranged for sneakers for the team.

Others, including police patrolmen, question the wisdom of sponsoring and supplying uniforms to known juvenile criminals. But many defend the idea as a wise last chance.

“I know this was controversial because some thought they were playing basketball instead of being in counseling,” said Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan. “But they weren’t going to counseling anyway and they are doing something now that builds self-esteem.”

The youths, mostly high school sophomores and juniors, have become minor neighborhood celebrities, said Stamper. She has to kick groupies out of basketball practices. A cadre of younger neighborhood boys asks for autographs.

“Her boys” have largely stayed out of trouble, lining up summer jobs and enrolling in school, said Stamper. They’ve fulfilled promises to stay straight, earning a pair of $100 shoes Stamper promised.

“They are playing so much, they don’t have time to get high,” said Stamper.

Still, the youths struggle. Many are parentless, staying with friends or family members. Stamper drives them home from practice to addresses that continually change.

Two got in a fight recently at North Central High. Another pair showed up to a practice stoned. The result: Rather than throw them out, Stamper made them run wind sprints the entire practice.

“They’re so volatile, they’re constantly in crisis,” said Stamper.

One 16 year-old boy will enter a drug and alcohol treatment center later this month, then serve a 40-day sentence in juvenile detention.

Others confined to in-home detention come to practice with monitor anklets. Stamper had to fax a game schedule to juvenile probation officers, who grant the players reprieve from house arrest to play.

“We’re the only team with ankle bracelets, on home monitor,” said Stamper, laughing.

The team has given the youths focus, said Stamper. Several now volunteer with COPS West youth programs. They lecture Stamper’s two young boys about the evils of cigarettes, drugs and violence.

“I’m happiest when I’ve been with the kids,” said Stamper.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo